believe it or not

Idioms  

1. It's true, whether or not you agree, as in Believe it or not, I finally finished painting the house. Originating in the 1800s, this phrase gained currency as the title of a cartoon series begun in 1918 by Robert Ripley and continuing to run in American newspapers long after his death in 1949. Each drawing presented a strange but supposedly true phenomenon, such as a two-headed chicken.

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Example Sentences

Believe it or not, the Pentagon has yet to even conduct a realistic test of the system, which would involve attempting to intercept hundreds of warheads traveling at 1,500 miles per hour, surrounded by realistic decoys that would make it hard to even know which objects to target.

From Salon

It’s a basic transparency measure on “frontier” AI models that requires companies to have safety and security protocols and report known “catastrophic” risks, such as when these models show tendencies toward behavior that could kill more than 50 people — which they have, believe it or not.

From Los Angeles Times

“Believe it or not, I was incredibly shy,” he said, recounting his fear at having to recite poetry in school.

From The Wall Street Journal

While it only said it was bought by a famous American brand, Ripley's Believe It or Not! later revealed themselves as the mystery buyer in an Instagram post, writing "we're flush with excitement".

From BBC

"Believe it or not, most of the central ideas and types of metabolism we study are conserved from worms to people," said Leiser.

From Science Daily